Who Fills the Power Vacuum? | Interview: Ken Pollack

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

The Dispatch

Politics, News

4.7 • 6.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With bombs falling, missiles flying, and the Ayatollah six feet under, there’s only one man Remnant listeners want on the show. Ken Pollack joins Jonah Goldberg to talk about the feasibility of regime change from the air; the precedents of Kosovo, Operation Desert Fox, and Libya; Iranian social cohesion; the risk of Balkanization; the threat Turkey poses; President Donald Trump’s fear of blowback; the administration’s reason for attacking now; and what happens from here. Show Notes:—Previous Remnant with Ken—Jonah’s Los Angeles Times column this week—Rubio’s explanation of the war—Phil Klein at National Review - “No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim that Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran”—Remnant with Eli Lake—George Will on restored American credibility The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including access to all of Jonah’s G-File newsletters—⁠click here⁠. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention.
0:18.0	Can you digger?
0:27.5	Greetings to your listeners.
0:28.7	This is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant podcast, brought to you by the Dispatch and Dispatch
0:32.1	Media.
0:32.6	I am back in America for all the excitement.
0:36.2	And when there's excitement in the air, married to the topic of
0:40.2	Iran, there's just really no avoiding having a friend of the podcast and friend of the host.
0:46.4	Ken Pollack back on. Ken was my former colleague at the American Enterprise Institute until he
0:52.9	betrayed us and all who used to respect him
0:56.8	by becoming the vice president for policy at the Middle East Institute. Previously he's as I said
1:02.3	he was at AI where he worked on Middle Eastern political military affairs particularly focusing
1:08.3	on Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, all that stuff.
1:12.1	And there may have been some three-letter agencies in his past.
1:16.1	So author of many books, yada, yada, yada.
1:18.9	Ken, we're sort of in the Japanese curse zone for you, right?
1:22.6	And interesting times.
1:24.1	Yeah, tell me about it.
1:25.4	It's been a little busier than usual.
1:27.2	I think we all saw this coming,
1:28.9	not quite in the way that it happened, but yeah, interesting times. We should tell people we're
1:34.1	recording this on Tuesday morning, late in the morning. By my rough count, don't hold me to the exact number,
	...

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